Parking tickets soar five-fold

New figures have shown an over five-time increase in the number of parking tickets issued by councils over the past decade to over four million in 2010, with a recent rise attributed to the introduction of CCTV-equipped camera cars.

Motorists faced fines of up to £105 last year, with automatically generated tickets sent through post instead of being placed on windscreens by wardens.

There was an increase of over 10% in the number of tickets issued in the two years since the camera cars started operating.

TheTraffic Penalty Tribunal criticised the misuse of parking cameras, saying that the automated system erroneously issued tickets to moving cars or where vehicles had a valid exemption for unloading.

There was a 20% rise in the number of motorists who triumphed on appeal against wrongly issued tickets since the camera cars started operating.

Over 8,000 motorists had their parking tickets quashed on appeal last year.

The Traffic Penalty Tribunal said that some camera cars were found parked on double yellow lines, while motorists were not warned about the presence of CCTVs.